How do you winterize your chiller?

[Pistondog]

Weather will be starting to cool off soon.
It will be time to take the chiller offline, thank goodness.
How do you rinse and disinfect your chiller?

My plan
1. Place siphon and return lines in 5gallon bucket.
2. Fill bucket with tap water
3. Run pump for 20 minutes
4. Empty and refill bucket
5. Repeat 3 times to flush
6. Add citric acid to bucket
7. Run overnight
8. Repeat above flushing sequence, 3 times.

I do not remove the water, but leave the lines and chiller full.

What do you do?

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Miami Reef]

I use my chiller pretty much year round in South Florida. My tank doesn’t even have a heater. I assumed others turn off the chiller but still allow water to flow through it. Going through that disinfecting process seems like a bit of work.

 

[Pistondog]

I use my chiller pretty much year round in South Florida. My tank doesn’t even have a heater. I assumed others turn off the chiller but still allow water to flow through it. Going through that disinfecting process seems like a bit of work.

Only have to run it 3 months or so. Easier for us to disconnect. It seems like some effort, but was curious what others do, especially to disinfect.

 

[Miami Reef]

Only have to run it 3 months or so. Easier for us to disconnect. It seems like some effort, but was curious what others do, especially to disinfect.

Ah. Only three months is something else.

Fill the 5 gallon bucket with RO/DI (not tap) and allow it to cycle through for 10-30 minutes. Done. Before using again, you can repeat this same process.

 

[Miami Reef]

I personally would use a little bleach, chlorine test strips, and a dechlorinator. I would run the bleach solution overnight then add enough dechlorinator until the chlorine test strip shows zero. I wouldn’t worry about rinsing out the chiller afterwards.

Prior to using again, I would run a 30 minute cycle with RO/DI.

 

[Pistondog]

Only have to run it 3 months or so. Easier for us to disconnect. It seems like some effort, but was curious what others do, especially to disinfect.

Ah. Only three months is something else.

Fill the 5 gallon bucket with RO/DI (not tap) and allow it to cycle through for 10-30 minutes. Done. Before using again, you can repeat this same process.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Without disinfection, any bacteria may/will cause problems in the chiller. Learned from experience, 1st over-winter.

 

[Miami Reef]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Without disinfection, any bacteria may/will cause problems in the chiller. Learned from experience, 1st over-winter.

Yep. That’s why I thought. I was thinking mold, actually. That’s why I added the bleach to the next post.

I was thinking citric acid, but it has a carbon dosing effect, so you’d probably want to rinse it in a few cycles afterwards to prevent bacteria blooms.

That will work as well. Fill the 5 gallon with tap and some citric acid. Let run overnight, then rinse in 2 cycles of tap (or RO) and the final rinse with RO/DI. That’s how I would do it. Very simple and straight to the point.

 

[Miami Reef]

If you have 3x 5 gallon buckets, you can have them in rows and move the pump between each one, allocating a 15-30 minute flush time between each.

 

[kboogie]

Weather will be starting to cool off soon.
It will be time to take the chiller offline, thank goodness.
How do you rinse and disinfect your chiller?

My plan
1. Place siphon and return lines in 5gallon bucket.
2. Fill bucket with tap water
3. Run pump for 20 minutes
4. Empty and refill bucket
5. Repeat 3 times to flush
6. Add citric acid to bucket
7. Run overnight
8. Repeat above flushing sequence, 3 times.

I do not remove the water, but leave the lines and chiller full.

What do you do?

Thanks for the suggestions.

I live in South Florida. I need my chiller year round.

 

[Pistondog]

If you have 3x 5 gallon buckets, you can have them in rows and move the pump between each one, allocating a 15-30 minute flush time between each.

I just swap between 2.
Thanks for the input.

 

[SeaDweller]

I’m in so cal and mine is running a lot right now because of our late heat/summer weather and the humidity. During the fall/winter/spring it’s still online with water flowing through it. I don’t see a reason to take it offline, never have with any systems and chillers I’ve ran.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I use my chiller pretty much year round in South Florida. My tank doesn’t even have a heater. I assumed others turn off the chiller but still allow water to flow through it. Going through that disinfecting process seems like a bit of work.

I’m looking forward to the winter here in Memphis. I’m hopeful that the cold air will prevent my chiller from coming on. I’m thinking about putting a fan on the back side to keep air moving through the cooling fins. I use an EB4, I was unaware of the relay driven outlet when I decided to run an outdoor chiller. Since I have an EB4 by the chiller I would control the fan by temp then.

 

[tmc13]

I keep mine online all year round and I'm in Ct. I like to use the temperature reading on the chiller as a secondary reading to my actual heater.